Adam Smith and the Character of Virtue [Paperback]

This book revisits the moral and political philosophy of Adam Smith to recover his understanding of morality in a market age.This book revisits the moral and political philosophy of Adam Smith, capitalisms founding father, to recover his understanding of morality in a market age. Focusing on Smiths analysis of the psychological and social ills endemic to commercial society, Hanley argues that Smith sought to combat corruption by cultivating the virtues of prudence, magnanimity and beneficence.This book revisits the moral and political philosophy of Adam Smith, capitalisms founding father, to recover his understanding of morality in a market age. Focusing on Smiths analysis of the psychological and social ills endemic to commercial society, Hanley argues that Smith sought to combat corruption by cultivating the virtues of prudence, magnanimity and beneficence.Recent years have witnessed a renewed debate over the costs at which the benefits of free markets have been bought. This book revisits the moral and political philosophy of Adam Smith, capitalisms founding father, to recover his understanding of the morals of the market age. In so doing it illuminates a crucial albeit overlooked side of Smiths project: his diagnosis of the ethical ills of commercial societies and the remedy he advanced to cure them. Focusing on Smiths analysis of the psychological and social ills endemic to commercial society  anxiety and restlessness, inauthenticity and mediocrity, alienation and individualism  it argues that Smith sought to combat corruption by cultivating the virtues of prudence, magnanimity, and beneficence. The result constitutes a new morality for modernity, at once a synthesis of commercial, classical, and Christian virtues and a normative response to one of the most pressing political problems of Smiths day and ours. Ryan Patrick Hanley is Assistant Professor of Political Science at Marquette University. His research in the history of politicalã&